Monday, December 21, 2009

A Different Perspective

An anonymous reader left the following comment (I reprint it here unedited except for the exclusion of a personal attack on one of the regular contributors to our discussions here on TP):

Unbelieveable...if you people really think that this is the successful way to the future, then your as stupid as the students that cant spell the word 'future'. Students have no social skills what-so-ever being raised in a computer generated world. They have no English skills as a result of comp slg...oh what you dont know what computer slang short-cutting is. The have no spelling skills as a result of spell check. Good luck living in a collapsed society ripe for a Chinese take-over when the idiots you put out in the world try and run this country. If society truly allows this to happen, you'll doom us all...

I invite all of the readers of this blog and all of the members of this PLN to please leave a comment in response to this statement.

I'm sure that you all will have a wiser and more lucid set of responses than I could manage alone.

31 comments:

First given his/her own poor speling, I wonder if this is in jest. The lack of civility makes me wonder for what past this person wants, as s/he does not embody anything I would want. Lastly, it is easy to make claims--but does the writer have any actual evidence to support any of those claims? I doubt it, other than rose-colored perception of a mythical past.

Wow! I guess this person sounds like an old school English teacher who is afraid of technology and the implications of a personal learning network. As a seventh grade teacher, I have discovered my interaction between myself and my students improves ten fold when they discover that I am a member of a technological society, rather than someone who is still in the dark about the possibilities that now exist between teachers and students.

The discussions that take place in a classroom without walls are so much more meaningful when they have opportunities to see what the "Chinese are doing" rather than read about in a textbook in a confined classroom where peer pressure limits the thoughts and rights of free speech. Seriously? Get a Grip Wannabe Slger, I can only imagine that ignorance such as yours is really not blissful since you choose to attack those who are indeed teaching the leaders of tomorrow rather than making a difference yourself!

While there may be snippets of reasonable concern buried somewhere deeply inside that comment. I read this as just another (of many) people outside of education looking in through their own very limited lens of what THEY THINK quality teaching and learning should be.

It's easy to take pot shots. And it's easier to fear (and rail against) that which you don't understand than to do the hard work of figuring this out.

But on a more serious note, I would bet that this person is probably a teacher that is freaked out with where technology is taking us in the field of education. I've met a lot of resistance in my building when talking to the "veterans" about implementing more technology into the classroom. That rant is just something else that we have to overcome when trying to bring about institutional change.

I'm curious why so much rage. Perhaps he was once run over by a kid with a laptop. Clearly no reasonable response will defuse the anger. Addressing his comments to "you people," he has set up an "Us" "Them" dichotomy that can not easily be undone. The world has past him by and all he can do is shake his fist and grumble. Responding in kind feels too much like an uneven fight, so let's be charitable and hope he will get something nice in his stocking like an iPhone that will lead him into the 21st century.

After I finished laughing at the poor spelling and grammar, I'm wondering whether this particular person feels as if s/he's missed out on some social skills in addition to research skills. Technology allows all of us (teachers, students, those not connected to the education venue) to make more connections to other humans, not fewer! It allows interactions to transcend the limits of a 42 minute class period. It allows richer learning through experiences that are shared by more people with wider backgrounds. It allows more practice of language (if facilitated by a teacher) and allows for more extended thought and response than the one or two questions allotted time in the classroom.

First, I think that any comment made would not be listened to by this person, because he or she seems to have made his/her mind made up. Shutting one's mind to possibilities is extremely detrimental, especially as an educator. As educators, don't we have the responsibility to inspire and motivate students to be life long learners?

Part of motivation is being relevant to students. We cannot ignore the world they live in. A major mission of this blog that I see is to get away from the damage caused by all the use of millions of textbooks and paper lessons that continue to take away from the natural resources of this world. Why use these tools? Students already text message, use smart phones, and post on social media sites whether it is taught in schools or not. Ignorance is not bliss. Students will continue to do this so why not teach them to learn with these technologies? I believe we have a global environmental and economic crisis, because our schools did not make the effort to teach us to problem solve on various technologies. Our schools also did not teach us about the negative impact our current instructional tools continue to have on the environment.

Obviously chalk and talk is the future, providing the skills that students will need in their work and home lives. The whole world is going to rely on ICT so let's teach from a textbook. Well done anon for your forsight into the lives of future generations where even my dad who is approaching 60 is using facebook.

We need to ignore anonymous comments. It is easy to be a critic and find fault....it is cowardly to do so anonymously! Same was said of moving to the ball point pen, for students would forget how to fashion a proper quill! Sheeeesh!

If the Chinese do take us over, it won't be because of their high understanding of how to write a proper english sentence. I'm guessing technical superiority will play more of a part.

By the way, language evolves as much as anything else. I learned that when I read my first Shakespeare as a kid (The Merchant of Venice). I couldn't understand the language at all, yet it was still in English. It occured to me that our language had morphed in those hundreds of years, even though no one intended it to. With how easy it is to communicate via technology, we shouldn't be surprised that it is morphing at a faster rate.

Every generation thinks the next generation is going straight to hell, yet somehow time marches on.

As for social skills, our anonymous poster is correct that some students lack social skills, unless being able to coordinate an attack with your buddies on XBox Live counts. But many other students are learning to cooperate with others using the Web 2.0 tools now available. They comment effectively on others' blogs and videos. They use feedback to edit and improve their own projects. If the "computer generated world" the writer refers to means "gaming console" then yes, there are problems. But fortunately for us, most teachers don't limit their students' experience to such a narrow range of educational technology.

What a load of nonsense, clearly designed to elicit a response and nothing more. Whether we like or want it, children are growing up in a world increasingly populated by electronic devices and computers. If we don't utilise them and incorporate learning somehow they will never learn anything more than how to connect to a network and blow each other up.

For our anony mouse - translation of this "computer slang short-cutting" (which most of us call Netlingo):I'm angry & annoyed!!!! My 2 cents worth... For crying out loud & with due respect - I seem to remember shorthand. (It was a very valued skill in days gone by. Welcome to the new shorthand.)

People that post anonymously make me sick. Well I guess we need to get the slide rule, big chief tablets, and pencils that are 2 inches around back out to educate this generation. That will prepare them for their future. I can't understand educators that are opposed to new learning. Students aren't the only ones benefitting from learning new concepts and tools, I find it exciting. After all we are in the learning business.

Persoanlly blogging is an innovative way to carry your personal journal or learning/reflection log. It will allow me to keep my thoughts and doubts in an organized way.I think I will be able to put my career into perspective and organize my writings and readings in one single spot. I have also discovered that students find this appealing because they say they feel at ease and posting ideas also requires some sort of research. What is truly unbelieveable is how can someone say students have no social skills what-so-ever being raised in a computer generated world. I find this a bit disturbing, because social skills include being able to communicate with others f2f and why not digitally. I find that the focus is more on the form and not the depth. Spelling and computer skills have nothing to do with social skills. I would like to share an experience with a student of mine who recently posted an article "Are computers female or male". She received so much reaction. One "female" closed her reaction with "indignated woman". The 'Indiganted woman" had so many mistakes yet she was able to understand and react to a post. Isn't that socializing? Life is about change, if man has created computers well be it. In my country, Ecuador, there's a saying if you have lemons, well make lemonade.

It's surprising that this person was reading your blog. It's wonderful to be able to reach out to your virtual audience and share your frustrations. My strategy is to ignore this kind of illogical ranting and push ahead with the work. Eventually, a critical mass of educators will tip the scale in the direction of new educational leadership. In the meantime, the students are smart and are learning the skills, despite the incompetence of some. Hasn't it always been this way?

I'm a little surprised to see so many people deriding anonymous posters in the same breath that they deride the quoted commenter.

The problems most of us seem to have with the quoted comment include that his fundamental ideas are wrong - society is not collapsing, China is not controlling us, and students still have strong social and grammar skills (when they choose to use them).

That he posted anonymously isn't the problem; the ideas are the problem. I'm sure we can all think of many politicians whose ideas we each believe are a problem, but the fact that the politicians aren't anonymous doesn't stop those ideas. By the same note, outlawing anonymous commenters won't stop the ideas you find dangerous -- if anything it will make them harder to address because those commenters won't be able to bring them to the table.

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